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Donation Policies

Your generous contribution to Special Olympics supports year-round programs and initiatives. As good stewards of your donations, we follow clear guidelines in processing your gifts.

Gift Policy Standards

All donations to Special Olympics, Special Olympics, Inc. or Special Olympics International (“SOI”) support the Special Olympics mission of providing year-round sports training and competition to children and adults with intellectual disabilities in communities throughout the United States and abroad.

SOI manages a number of fundraising initiatives with local Programs to make every donated dollar go further for athletes in a Program’s region and around the world. We will carefully consider the needs of the organization and will use your gift where we determine it is most needed, so that all donations may directly and indirectly support Special Olympics in your area. When processing each gift, we will follow documented Special Olympics business rules and agreements, the Donor’s Bill of Rights, and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles standards.

SOI will not accept any restrictions on use of donations less than $10,000; however, if you specifically request at the time of donation that funds be distributed to an accredited Program we will honor such request so long as distribution does not conflict with other Special Olympics policies. If SOI cannot honor a donor’s designation request for a gift of $10,000 or more, the gift will be forwarded to the appropriate local Program or returned to the donor. Third parties to a donation may not change the original designation of a gift. SOI may refuse any gift that does not sufficiently benefit the organization, is in conflict with the Special Olympics mission, puts the reputation of Special Olympics at risk or is prohibited by law.

Refunds are available for 15 days after a donation is processed.

Thank you for your support of Special Olympics.

Donation Refund Policy

If you have made an error in making your donation or change your mind about contributing to Special Olympics, we will honor your request for a refund made within 15 days of your donation.

To request a refund, call +1 (202) 824-0373. Refunds are returned using the original method of payment. If you made your donation by credit card, your refund will be credited to that same credit card.